Secretary Speeches from March 2010http://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03
Department of Commerce NewsenRemarks at Democratic Leadership Council, Jobs and Innovation Roundtablehttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/25/remarks-democratic-leadership-council-jobs-and-innovation-roundta
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Thursday, March 25, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at Democratic Leadership Council, Jobs and Innovation Roundtable<br />
Washington, D.C.</strong></p>
<p>Hello everyone. </p>
<p>I&rsquo;d like to thank Bruce Reed for inviting me here today, and Harold Ford for that nice introduction.</p>
<p>And it&rsquo;s great to share the stage with Congresswoman Markey and others.</p>
<p>We were, of course, supposed to have this meeting in February, until Snowmageddon intervened.</p>
<p>But it's great to finally be here&mdash;especially just a few days after the president signed the most momentous piece of domestic reform legislation in decades</p>
<p>We have finally won a hard-fought battle to pass comprehensive health care legislation that brings down costs, expands coverage to millions of Americans and ends the worst practices of insurance companies. And it begins to do so this year.</p>
<p>This legislation is a victory for American families, for seniors, for workers and small businesses&mdash;for Americans who deserve the security of knowing that in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the American dream.</p>
<p>In short, it is a quantum leap forward for the American people and for the American economy.</p>
<p>And it's going to help fuel the innovation America needs to get its economy growing again.</p>
<p>That connection&mdash;between health care reform and innovation&mdash;might not be immediately apparent. But it is no less true.</p>
<p>America, more than any other country, celebrates entrepreneurial innovators and companies bringing new products and new ways of doing business to market. We venerate those willing to shake up the status quo. And President Obama and his administration seek to empower them.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our health care system, as it exists today, actively works against the innovation and risk-taking we are trying to encourage. </p>
<p>In this 21st century economy, people should decide whether they want to start a new business or switch jobs based solely on their vision and the power of their ideas. </p>
<p>But that's not the way it works. We all know people who would like to switch jobs, but won&rsquo;t because they can't afford to lose health care for their child or risk shopping for a plan in the individual market.</p>
<p>The status quo represents lost opportunity not just for would-be entrepreneurs but for our entire economy.</p>
<p>Who knows how many new businesses haven&rsquo;t been started or new products haven&rsquo;t been developed because smart people were locked in jobs just to keep their health care? </p>
<p>With the passage of healthcare reform, that is a question we are not going to have to ask anymore.</p>
<p>This event is appropriately billed as a jobs and innovation roundtable&mdash;because it is innovation, in all its forms, that will help put America back on the road to sustainable job growth. </p>
<p>Somewhere in the last decade, I think America lost sight of that.</p>
<p>The idea of investing for the future and creating new kinds of useful goods and services often took a back seat to speculation and short-term thinking. </p>
<p>The upshot of this has been frightening declines in security and stability for middle class families.</p>
<p>As President Obama said earlier this year, &ldquo;Too many Americans have known their own painful recessions long before any economist declared that there was a recession.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And I think the chief focus for economic policymakers and policy-shapers is figuring out how we fix this.</p>
<p>In February, the Democratic Leadership Council released two research papers that get right to the core of what has to be done.</p>
<p>At home, America needs to ramp up her investments in innovation and infrastructure so we can lead the world in emerging industries like clean energy, biotechnology and health IT. </p>
<p>Make no mistake. Our rivals in this global competition aren&rsquo;t playing for second place. </p>
<p>And we&rsquo;ve got to do a better job selling the fruits of these investments to the 95 percent of the world's consumers who live outside our borders.</p>
<p>The Obama administration is already moving aggressively on both of these fronts, and today I'm going to tell you how.</p>
<p>Let's start with innovation.</p>
<p>Across the Administration, and across the Commerce Department, we are taking a holistic approach.</p>
<p>The Administration is providing billions in additional funding for research and development through multiple agencies, reversing the decades-long decline in federal funding of basic research.</p>
<p>The president has announced a formal National Innovation Strategy&mdash;which among other things&mdash;calls for doubling the budgets of agencies such as the National Science Foundation, so they can better support basic research at our nation's universities.</p>
<p>And just recently, the president&rsquo;s 2011 budget&mdash;while freezing domestic discretionary spending overall&mdash;increases funding for civilian R&amp;D by $3.7 billion, or nearly six percent.</p>
<p>At the Commerce Department, we are looking at ways to accelerate the movement of ideas from federally funded labs into the hands of entrepreneurs. </p>
<p>Many university-based research centers do a terrific job commercializing technologies. The challenge before us is to make that high-level of performance the standard among all colleges and universities in America.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, the Commerce Department's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship brought together academic and business leaders from across the country to begin developing a more efficient and standardized approach to moving basic and applied research into the marketplace.</p>
<p>Another key area is our effort to reform the U.S. patent office at home and crack down on counterfeiting and piracy of U.S. goods abroad.</p>
<p>When I joined the Commerce Department early last year, we had a backlog of almost 800,000 applications, and an often cumbersome process that created immense uncertainty in the marketplace.</p>
<p>The over three years it currently takes to grant or deny a patent application is flat-out unacceptable.</p>
<p>The more patent applications that languish, the more new products not going to market and the more new jobs not being created. </p>
<p>Without clear and ironclad ownership of a patent, it makes it:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> harder for businesses and entrepreneurs to attract investors; and </li>
<li> more likely that patent-holders will be on the receiving end of drawn-out and possibly frivolous litigation.</li>
</ul>
<p>It&rsquo;s analogous to trying to build a house on a piece of land that you don't have clear title to. </p>
<p>We are on a mission to fix these problems at the patent office. </p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve got a very capable hand leading the PTO in Dave Kappos, who is focused on granting patent applications much faster and with higher quality. </p>
<p>The goal I have given the PTO is to be able to grant or deny a patent application within 12 months for those applicants who desire it.</p>
<p>And we are going to continue to work with Congress in the months ahead as they try to pass comprehensive patent reform legislation this year. </p>
<p>Of course, I know that receiving clear and quality patent rights is only half the battle when it comes to intellectual property.</p>
<p>As American companies move ever deeper into world markets, it&rsquo;s getting increasingly difficult to protect our innovations.</p>
<p>Every year, American companies in fields as diverse as energy, technology, entertainment and pharmaceuticals lose as much as $250 billion to counterfeiting and piracy.</p>
<p>That hurts American businesses. It costs American jobs. And it is flatly unacceptable. As Vice President Biden has said, violating IP laws is outright theft, and it should be treated accordingly</p>
<p>It is a fundamental priority of the Obama administration and the Department of Commerce to improve our protection of intellectual property worldwide. </p>
<p>As just one example, at last year&rsquo;s U.S.-China JCCT meeting, we agreed on a range of issues, including furthering cooperation on intellectual property rights. </p>
<p>I have already been to countries in Asia and South America multiple times to express the Obama administration&rsquo;s commitment on this issue, and I have explained to foreign audiences that as their companies move up the economic value chain, they too will depend on the protection of their intellectual property. </p>
<p>As we take these important steps to spur American innovation at home, Commerce is also ramping up its efforts to help our companies sell more of their products abroad.</p>
<p>With traditional drivers of American economic growth like consumer and business spending facing headwinds, our companies must increasingly turn to the billions of potential customers abroad. </p>
<p>The Commerce Department is playing a lead role in implementing President Obama&rsquo;s recently announced National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports over the next five years and support two million new jobs here at home.</p>
<p>Under the NEI, there is going to be more credit available for exporters, more government trade promotion and advocacy and a sharper focus on knocking down the barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and open access to foreign markets. </p>
<p>To put it another way: Prior to the NEI, export promotion may have been a &ldquo;some of the time&rdquo; focus for many U.S. cabinet agencies and departments. </p>
<p>The NEI makes it an &ldquo;all the time focus.&rdquo; </p>
<p>Before closing, I&rsquo;d like to mention two more big bets that the administration is making when it comes to innovation. </p>
<p>First, we all know well that in today&rsquo;s flatter world, a country&rsquo;s competitive advantages are not locked-in. We must constantly look to the horizon and expand the scope of our innovations.</p>
<p>This administration is doing just that by looking for new ways to make the entire economy, all across the country, more innovative. </p>
<p>You&rsquo;re all familiar with the many high-tech clusters we are lucky to have in the United States&mdash;in places like Silicon Valley, the Route 128 corridor in Boston and the Research Triangle in North Carolina. </p>
<p>If the president&rsquo;s 2011 budget is approved, the Commerce Department will be awarding grants and providing comprehensive technical assistance to create more of these clusters of innovation around the country, centered on whatever strengths a local community chooses to build on.</p>
<p>Of course, nowadays you cannot be an innovator, or live in an innovative community, unless you have robust access to broadband connectivity. And the Commerce Department is the lead agency in the administration's $7.2 billion effort to expand high-speed Internet access throughout the country. </p>
<p>We&rsquo;re distributing $4.5 billion of the funding and $2.7 billion is coming from the Department of Agriculture.</p>
<p>By September of this year, Commerce will have made over $4 billion in grants to help integrate communities that are currently under-served or unserved. </p>
<p>And most of our grants are to build out the type of high-speed Internet infrastructure that private investors have been unwilling or unable to.</p>
<p>So, Commerce is funding what we call &ldquo;middle mile&rdquo; highways of high speed Internet connecting community anchor institutions like colleges, hospitals and government institutions.</p>
<p>The private sector will then come in with billions of dollars in additional investments to connect to the federally funded Internet backbone and provide high-speed Internet service to millions of individual homes and businesses.</p>
<p>Second, you should know that the Commerce Department is focused on using the tools at our disposal to improve the delivery of healthcare and to address our energy and environmental challenges. </p>
<p>Out at NIST&mdash;the National Institute of Standards and Technology&mdash;the team is working diligently&mdash;with industry&mdash;on interoperability standards for Health IT. And we have made phenomenal progress on interoperability standards for the smart grid.</p>
<p>But those are just two examples. </p>
<p>We also see ourselves as partners on certain cutting edge questions. </p>
<p>The NIST researchers are looking into tough questions, like how do you measure declines in greenhouse gases? It&rsquo;s a simple question to state, but not an easy one to answer.</p>
<p>At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, we are developing more accurate information on climate change. </p>
<p>We recently announced the creation of a National Climate Service. Much like the National Weather Service or the Global Positioning System (GPS), we know that when government develops good data on hard to measure phenomena, the private sector can leverage that data to create new products and services.</p>
<p>As we move forward on our green initiatives, and the other agenda items I've discussed today, I look forward to input from leaders like all of you on how we continue to make America more conducive to innovation.</p>
<p>And let&rsquo;s remember that we don't promote innovation just for its own sake. We promote innovation because it has always been, and always will be, the prime driver of job creation in America.</p>
<p>When we build our economy on the short-lived inflation of assets, like we did these last 10 years, we are setting ourselves up for a fall. </p>
<p>But when we focus on real productivity, new technology and new ways of doing business, we&rsquo;re going to help put America on sound financial footing and return stability and security to American families.</p>
<p>We want to help facilitate that, and if you have ideas, the doors at the White House and the Commerce Department are always open.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechFeatured StoriesBroadbandBudgetBusiness ChinaClimateClimate ChangeCompanies CongressDataDeclineDevelopmentEconomyEntrepreneurshipExportsGlobalGoods and servicesGovernment GrantsGrowthInitiativeInnovationIntellectual propertyInternetInteroperabilityJobsLawsLocalMarketplaceMissionNationalNorth CarolinaObamaPresident ObamaProductsResearchScienceStateTechnologyTradeUnited StatesWeatherWhite HouseNational Institute of Standards and TechnologyNational Telecommunications and Information AdministrationOffice of the SecretaryPatent and Trademark OfficeThu, 25 Mar 2010 18:17:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11556 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Tax Benefits, Minneapolis, Minnesotahttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/23/remarks-american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act-tax-benefits-minne
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Tuesday, March 23, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Tax Benefits<br />
Minneapolis, Minnesota</strong></p>
<p><a href="/node/11557" target="_top">Release</a><a href="/sites/default/files/documents/migrated/ARRA-tax-FS.pdf" target="_top"><br />
Fact Sheet</a><br /></p>
<p><em>Opening Remarks</em></p>
<p>Thank you all for coming out today. And thanks especially to Pastor Patrick and his wife Luisa Cabello Hansel for hosting us in their beautiful home.</p>
<p>Mayor Rybak, it&rsquo;s a pleasure to be in Minneapolis, this great city of yours&mdash;just a short distance, President Lantry, from St. Paul, the wonderful city that you serve as president of the city council.</p>
<p>As a baseball fan, I would be remiss if I didn&rsquo;t note the great news Minnesotans heard over the weekend&mdash;Joe Mauer signed to a long-term deal.</p>
<p>As a big Seattle Mariners fan, I wouldn&rsquo;t mind seeing him over in the National League but think it&rsquo;s great that Joe will play in his hometown&mdash;and in a new outdoor stadium&mdash;for a long time.</p>
<p>Now, before we get started with the discussion, I&rsquo;d like to address the tremendous development we saw in the House of Representatives over the weekend.</p>
<p>We have finally won a hard-fought battle to pass comprehensive health care legislation that brings down health care costs, expands coverage to millions of Americans and ends the worst practices of insurance companies. And it begins to do so this year.</p>
<p>This legislation is a victory for American families, for seniors, for workers and small businesses&mdash;for Americans who deserve the security of knowing that in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the American dream.</p>
<p>In short, it is a quantum leap forward for the American people and for the American economy.</p>
<p>And on the heels of this achievement, it is great to be here in Minnesota to talk about another forward-looking set of policies that's helping middle-class families achieve more security and helping to get our economy growing again.</p>
<p>I know that people are frustrated that the economy is not turning around quicker.</p>
<p>And I can assure you that despite improving economic indicators, this administration will not consider it a complete recovery until every American who wants a job can find one.</p>
<p>But as we continue to work ahead, it is important to be mindful of where we have come from. </p>
<p>Early last year, we were on the precipice of a second depression, with banks failing and the economy losing 700,000 jobs a month.</p>
<p>But thanks to the difficult and sometimes unpopular steps the administration took to stabilize financial and housing markets and stimulate our economy, we have returned from the brink.</p>
<p>One of those steps was the passage of the Recovery Act, which distributed badly needed relief in almost equal thirds of:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> tax relief;</li>
<li> aid to states; and</li>
<li> infrastructure projects.</li>
</ul>
<p>For Minnesota, it meant:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> two million families have received $1.1 billion in tax relief under the making work pay tax credit.</li>
<li> The funding of over 250 transportation projects valued at $634 million; and </li>
<li> for homeowners like the Hansels, it meant a chance to help buy their first home.</li>
</ul>
<p>Over 13,000 Minnesota families have taken advantage of the first time home buyer credit, which provides up to $8,000 upon the purchase of a home.</p>
<p>Thousands more, including Shannon (local guest) have taken advantage of tax credits that award up to $1,500 to offset the cost of home efficiency improvements like insulation; and the installation of things like superefficient HVAC systems, geothermal heat pumps and solar and wind energy systems.</p>
<p>Shannon is going to save money twice&mdash;on her tax bill, and every month, with reductions in her heating and cooling bills.</p>
<p>And, as families like Shannon&rsquo;s have taken advantage of these tax credits, businesses like Tom&rsquo;s (local guest) have been doing more work and hiring more people.</p>
<p>Now with tax time almost upon us, it is critically important for everyone to know that these tax incentives can be claimed for purchases made in 2009, and will continue into all of 2010.</p>
<p>Ok, now I&rsquo;ve talked long enough. I&rsquo;d like to have a conversation to hear a little about how folks have already used these tax credits.</p>
<p>We won&rsquo;t be too formal, I&rsquo;d just like to hear from each of you about your own stories.</p>
<p>Why don&rsquo;t we start with our host: Pastor Patrick, can you tell us a little about how you became a first-time home buyer and purchased this beautiful house?</p>
<p><em><br />
Closing Remarks</em></p>
<p>Again, I want to thank you all for coming today. I can't tell you how much we appreciate the Hansel&rsquo;s hospitality.</p>
<p>I would just like to close by reminding everyone that you still have time to claim a variety of tax credits available to you under the Recovery Act if you file before April 15.</p>
<p>Already, tax refunds are up an average of nearly $300 this year&mdash;due in large part to Recovery Act benefits. Families buying a new home, investing in a more efficient house or fuel-efficient car could easily see tax savings run into the thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>There is a new Tax Savings Tool on the White House Web site that guides taxpayers through the various new tax benefits and determine which ones they are eligible for this tax season. I would encourage everyone to visit it at WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery.</p>
<p>The work of the Recovery Act is far from over&mdash;and it's going to be stimulating the American economy throughout the rest of the year.</p>
<p>I'm confident that it will help continue to provide badly needed support for families, for states and for businesses as the private sector continues to ramp up and get our economy revving again.</p>
<p>Thank you again for having me.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechBenefitsCityCompanies DevelopmentEconomyJobsLocalMinnesotaNationalRecoveryWhite HouseOffice of the SecretaryTue, 23 Mar 2010 17:31:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11558 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks at Cardinal Health, National Export Initiative Rollout Event, Dublin, Ohiohttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/22/remarks-cardinal-health-national-export-initiative-rollout-event-
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Monday, March 22, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at Cardinal Health, National Export Initiative Rollout Event<br />
Dublin, Ohio</strong></p>
<p><a href="/node/11562" target="_top">Release</a><br /></p>
<p>Thank you all for coming out today. I just want to begin by addressing the tremendous development we saw in the House of Representatives last night.</p>
<p>We have finally won a hard-fought battle to pass comprehensive health care legislation that will expand access, bring down costs and give Americans the security that if they lose or change jobs, they can count on affordable coverage, regardless of their health status.</p>
<p>This is a quantum leap forward for the American people and for the American economy.</p>
<p>It's going to provide security and affordability for consumers. It's going to bring down costs for individuals, families, businesses and the government.</p>
<p>And on the heels of this achievement, it is great to be here at Cardinal Health to talk about another forward-looking policy that's going to be a great driver of job creation in Ohio.</p>
<p>And I&rsquo;d like to thank some leaders of our regional export assistance centers for joining us. Mike Miller, our Regional Network Director and Roberta Ford, director of our Columbus office; thank you for being here today.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, the president signed an executive order instructing the federal government to use every available federal resource in support of the initiative's goal of doubling American exports over the next five years and supporting two million jobs.</p>
<p>The National Export Initiative (NEI) was designed with one overriding goal in mind: to get people back to work in jobs that provide security, dignity and sense of hope for the future. </p>
<p>Under the NEI, there is going to be more credit available for exporters, more government trade promotion and a sharper focus on knocking down the barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and open access to foreign markets. </p>
<p>To put it another way: Prior to the NEI, export promotion may have been a &ldquo;some of the time&rdquo; focus for many U.S. cabinet agencies and departments. </p>
<p>The NEI makes it an &ldquo;all the time focus.&rdquo; </p>
<p>We&rsquo;re going to have Agriculture Department employees in Iowa educating farmers about export opportunities in Europe and Commerce Department trade specialists pounding the pavement in Beijing to find new customers for U.S. businesses. </p>
<p>The NEI is going to provide even more resources and focus on the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration (or ITA)&mdash;which has a global network of trade specialists posted in 109 U.S. cities and at 128 U.S. embassies and consulates in 77 countries.</p>
<p>As part of the NEI, the president&rsquo;s 2011 Budget is requesting a 20-percent increase for ITA&mdash;totaling $78 million.</p>
<p>With that, ITA plans to bring on as many as 328 trade experts&mdash;mostly in foreign countries&mdash;to advocate and find customers for U.S. companies, allowing its Commercial Service to assist more than 23,000 clients to begin or grow their export sales in 2011.</p>
<p>The NEI will allow ITA to:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Put a special focus on increasing the number of small- and medium-sized businesses exporting to more than one market by 50 percent over the next five years;</li>
<li> Increase their presence in emerging high-growth markets like China, India and Brazil;</li>
<li> And to develop a comprehensive strategy to identify market opportunities in fast-growing sectors like environmental goods and services, renewable energy, healthcare and biotechnology.</li>
</ul>
<p>Ohio businesses that want to take advantage of these new services don&rsquo;t have to look far. They can just visit Commerce&rsquo;s regional export assistance centers throughout the state, which have already written plenty of export success stories.</p>
<p>Take for instance Snow Dragon LLC, a manufacturer of snow removal equipment based in Cleveland. Recently, they contacted their local export assistance office to restructure their approach to the Canadian market. By using our international partner search service, Snow Dragon was able to quickly identify a viable Canadian distributor. This new partnership immediately yielded a sale of $195,000 and went on to produce over $1.4 million in annual sales. Snow Dragon now has 46 distributors throughout the world.</p>
<p>Or look at Global Recovery Group LLC, which provides international recovery services for private sector commercial debt. Global Recovery has frequently ordered proprietary research from our Columbus export assistance center to help them gather information on defaulted debtors across the globe.</p>
<p>In one recent case, our Columbus office provided research that helped Global Recovery Group collect $1.5 million dollars from a Philippine company that had defaulted on a loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.</p>
<p>The Columbus office has provided similar assistance to Global Recovery Group in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and on multiple occasions in the Philippines.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department and our Foreign Commercial Service are good at what we do. And we want more businesses to take advantage of what we've got to offer.</p>
<p>With traditional drivers of U.S. economic growth like consumer and business spending facing stiff headwinds, it has never been more important for our companies to increase their sales to the 95 percent of the world&rsquo;s consumers who live outside the United States.</p>
<p>For much of this last decade, America&rsquo;s economic growth was built on a speculative mania that enriched a select few while leaving many Americans out in the cold.</p>
<p>Since 2000, most families have seen their wages stagnate or decline, while the necessities of life like health care and tuition skyrocketed.</p>
<p>The National Export Initiative will help build a stronger economic foundation and allow us to return to the type of sustainable growth that not long ago helped build the strongest middle class in history.</p>
<p>From the advent of the phone, to the automobile to new drug therapies and the Internet, America&rsquo;s strength has always been our people&rsquo;s ability to create and sell products and services that help others around the world lead healthier, wealthier and more productive lives.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s what we've got to get back to: creating, building and innovating. That is what this country is all about.</p>
<p>For all of America's economic strengths, we stand out among developed nations as one of the few whose government has not had a focused, comprehensive, and agile export strategy.</p>
<p>Partly as a result, only one percent of American companies export. Of those companies that do, 58 percent only send their goods and services to one market.</p>
<p>With the NEI, American businesses that want to export&mdash;especially small- and medium-size enterprises&mdash;are going to have a more vigorous partner in the U.S. government.</p>
<p>As I said earlier, this National Export Initiative drives ambitious goals: a doubling of exports in five years supporting two million jobs.</p>
<p>It's an aggressive goal, but these challenging times demand nothing less.</p>
<p>With millions of Americans out of work, and our competitors in Europe and Asia increasingly chasing the same business opportunities that we are, we don't have the luxury to be passive.</p>
<p>There has never been any question that American companies make goods and services that are desired all over the world.</p>
<p>The federal government just has to do a better job connecting the foreign consumers that want our stuff with the US companies who make it.</p>
<p>The National Export Initiative will do exactly that.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechBrazilBudgetBusiness ChinaCompanies DeclineDevelopmentEconomyExportsGlobalGoods and servicesGovernment GrowthIndiaInitiativeInternationalInternetIowaJobsLocalNationalOhioOpportunitiesPhilippinesProductsRecoveryResearchStateTradeUnited StatesInternational Trade AdministrationOffice of the SecretaryMon, 22 Mar 2010 14:57:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11563 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks at PhRMA Annual Meeting, Arlington, Virginiahttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/18/remarks-phrma-annual-meeting-arlington-virginia
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Thursday, March 18, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at PhRMA Annual Meeting<br />
Arlington, Virginia</strong></p>
<p>Thank you for inviting me here today.</p>
<p>As we meet here in Arlington, it's hard not to have our attention focused on what's going on just a few miles from here.</p>
<p>Congress is on the cusp of passing comprehensive health care legislation that will finally expand access, bring down costs and give Americans the security that if they lose or change jobs, they can count on affordable coverage, regardless of their health status.</p>
<p>If this bill passes, it will be a quantum leap forward for the American people and for the American economy.</p>
<p>And I want to thank PhRMA for the constructive role you have played since this whole process began over a year ago.</p>
<p>I know this issue has been contentious, even within your own membership. But I have the utmost confidence that comprehensive health care legislation will have been worth fighting for. </p>
<p>It's going to provide security and affordability for consumers. It's going to bring down costs for individuals, families, businesses and the government. </p>
<p>And it's going to help fuel the innovation America needs to get its economy growing again.</p>
<p>That connection, between health care reform and innovation might not be immediately apparent. But it is no less true.</p>
<p>America, more than any other country, celebrates the idea of entrepreneurial innovators and companies bringing new products and new ways of doing business to market. We glorify those willing to shake up the status quo. And the Obama administration seeks to empower them.</p>
<p>Well, unfortunately our health care system as it exists today, preserves the status quo.</p>
<p>In this 21st century economy, people should decide whether they want to start a new business or switch jobs based solely on where their skills fit best and where they can grow. </p>
<p>But that's not the way it works. We all know people who would like to switch jobs, but won&rsquo;t because they can't afford to lose health care for their child or risk shopping for a plan in the individual market.</p>
<p>Who knows how many new businesses haven&rsquo;t been started or new products haven&rsquo;t been developed because smart people were locked in jobs just to keep their health care?</p>
<p>In these difficult economic times, nothing is more important to American prosperity than jumpstarting our engine of innovation.</p>
<p>I know that is something that people in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries have a deep appreciation for&mdash;and I&rsquo;d like to spend my time today talking about how the Obama administration is jumpstarting our national engine of innovation.</p>
<p>America&rsquo;s economy has always depended, above all, on a continuous flow of new technologies and new ideas entering the marketplace.</p>
<p>But that engine has recently broken down. </p>
<p>For years, our economy had been on a path of illusory growth&mdash;one driven by speculation and debt-fueled consumption. </p>
<p>America may still be a world leader in key metrics of economic success like levels of entrepreneurship, R&amp;D investment and IT infrastructure&mdash;but a widely-cited report that came out last year concluded that no advanced economy has done <em>less</em> than the United States to improve its competitive position over the last decade.</p>
<p>The United States simply must get back to cultivating industries and lines of scientific discovery that provide long-term benefits to society and spur sustainable innovation.</p>
<p>That's the type of work that America's pharmaceutical and biomedical companies do every day.</p>
<p>Your industry is high-risk and high-reward&mdash;it&rsquo;s characterized by big investments, only some of which will reap substantial pay-offs.</p>
<p>Your industry is a source of breakthroughs in treatments to improve public health, a source of high-paying jobs, and a constant font of innovation that spins off new businesses with significant growth prospects.</p>
<p>Above all, we owe this uniquely American success story to the vision and intellect of your scientists, engineers and business managers.</p>
<p>But over the years, this country has also made a lot of smart decisions to create the physical and regulatory environment that allow your innovations to germinate.</p>
<p>U.S. leadership in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology flows from the nation&rsquo;s multi-decade support for basic research led by the National Institutes of Health; a strong pool of world-class scientific talent; and an entrepreneurial climate that fosters the start-up of new businesses. </p>
<p>These are competitive strengths that the Obama administration seeks to build on. Let me tell you how.</p>
<p>To begin with, this administration has made a variety of policy decisions that have a direct impact on the ability of America's pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to deliver affordable life-saving medicines to consumers.</p>
<p>The administration is providing additional funding for research and development through the NIH and other agencies&mdash;reversing the decades-long decline in federal funding of basic research.</p>
<p>You will all also remember that one of President Obama's first acts upon entering office was lifting barriers to federally-funded stem cell research.</p>
<p>The administration and the Commerce Department are also pursuing a variety of innovation-boosting strategies that will help spur growth throughout our economy.</p>
<p>One key area that I know is of great interest to PhRMA members is the administration&rsquo;s efforts to reform the U.S. patent office at home and crack down on counterfeiting and piracy of U.S. goods abroad.</p>
<p>When I joined the Commerce Department early last year, it became apparent almost immediately that we had major issues at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.</p>
<p>We had a backlog of almost 800,000 applications, and an often cumbersome process that created immense uncertainty in the marketplace.</p>
<p>Without clear and ironclad ownership of a patent, it makes it harder for businesses and entrepreneurs to attract investors and more likely that patent-holders will be on the receiving end of long term and possibly frivolous litigation.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s analogous to trying to build a house on a piece of land that you don't have clear title to. That's just not good for anybody.</p>
<p>And all of you should know that we are on a mission to fix these problems at the patent office.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve got a very capable hand leading the PTO in Dave Kappos, who is focused on granting patent applications at higher quality and with greater timing flexibility.</p>
<p>We are going to continue working with Congress in the months ahead as they try to pass comprehensive patent reform this year. As you know, it's vital to the PTO, to innovation, to job creation and to our economy</p>
<p>Of course, I know that receiving clear and quality patent rights is only half the battle when it comes to intellectual property.</p>
<p>As American companies move ever deeper into world markets, it&rsquo;s getting increasingly difficult to protect our innovations.</p>
<p>Every year, American companies in fields as diverse as energy, technology, entertainment and pharmaceuticals lose between $200-$250 billion to counterfeiting and piracy.</p>
<p>That hurts American businesses. It costs American jobs. And it is flatly unacceptable.</p>
<p>The life-saving medicines that you produce are among the strongest competitive advantages we have in the global economy.</p>
<p>And it is a fundamental priority of the Obama administration and the Department of Commerce to protect it.</p>
<p>The Department of Commerce has a long history of active international engagement on this issue.</p>
<p>Commerce has been an active participant with the U.S. Trade Representative and other agencies in the negotiation with key trading partners of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which takes aim at preventing counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale. </p>
<p>At last year&rsquo;s U.S.-China JCCT meeting, we agreed on a range of issues, including furthering cooperation on intellectual property rights and strengthening China&rsquo;s oversight and enforcement of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are used in the production of counterfeit medicines. </p>
<p>The PTO also has a very strong ongoing enforcement effort that provides training for government and private sector officials from all over the world.</p>
<p>More broadly, IP protection has been, and will continue to be, a focus of my tenure at Commerce. </p>
<p>I have already been to China multiple times to express the Obama administration&rsquo;s commitment on this issue. My message there, and throughout the rest of the world, is a simple one:</p>
<p>America will not allow its knowledge and its intellectual property to be stolen with impunity.</p>
<p>Patents are obviously an integral part of America's innovation ecosystem. </p>
<p>But the Commerce Department is also engaged in a variety of other areas that impact the ability of businesses to develop ideas and deliver them to new markets. </p>
<p>For example, we are looking at ways to accelerate the movement of ideas from federally-funded labs into the hands of entrepreneurs. Many university-based research centers do a terrific job managing commercializing technologies. The challenge before us is to make that high-level of performance the standard nationwide.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, the Commerce Department's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship brought together academic and business leaders from across the country to begin the process of developing a more efficient and standardized approach to moving basic and applied research into the marketplace.</p>
<p>Commerce is also working with the rest of the Administration to address problems with business visas&mdash;to allow foreign scientists and business leaders to travel more easily to the United States.</p>
<p>In addition, we will soon be awarding grants to local communities to help them improve upon their unique strengths and create regional economic clusters. </p>
<p>You&rsquo;re all familiar with the Route 128 biotechnology corridor in Boston. There are also thriving biotech clusters in San Francisco, San Diego, and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. </p>
<p>There's no reason we can't create more of these clusters of innovation around the country, centered on medical research or whatever other strength a local community chooses to build on.</p>
<p>As we take these important steps to spur American innovation at home, Commerce is also ramping up our efforts to help our companies sell more of their products abroad.</p>
<p>With traditional drivers of American economic growth like consumer and business spending facing headwinds, our companies must increasingly turn their focus to selling goods and services to the 95 percent of the world&rsquo;s consumers who live <em>outside</em> the United States.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department is playing a lead role in implementing President Obama&rsquo;s recently announced National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports over the next five years and support two million jobs here at home.</p>
<p>There is no question that PhRMA members will have to be an integral part of us reaching this goal. Despite the recent recession, millions of people around the world are emerging from poverty and they will look to your medicines to ensure a healthier, wealthier future for their families.</p>
<p>As we move forward on this export initiative, and the other agenda items I've discussed today, I will look forward to hearing your input on how we can continue to make America more conducive to innovation.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has policies in place that I am confident will help get the American economy back on its feet.</p>
<p>But ultimately, it is innovators like all of you that are going to show us how to get there.</p>
<p>As always, it will be a scientist with a new medicine, an engineer with a new energy technology that I suspect will get this economy moving faster than the naysayers expect.</p>
<p>We want to help facilitate that however we can, and if you have ideas, my door is always open.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechFeatured StoriesBenefitsBusiness ChinaClimateCompanies CongressDeclineDevelopmentEconomyEntrepreneurshipEnvironmentExportsGlobalGoods and servicesGovernment GrantsGrowthInitiativeInnovationIntellectual propertyInternationalJobsLocalMarketplaceMissionNationalNorth CarolinaObamaPatentsPresident ObamaProductsResearchTechnologyTradeTravelUnited StatesVirginiaOffice of the SecretaryPatent and Trademark OfficeThu, 18 Mar 2010 18:09:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11566 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks at Center for Strategic and International Studies Forumhttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/17/remarks-center-strategic-and-international-studies-forum
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Wednesday, March 17, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at Center for Strategic and International Studies Forum<br />
Washington, D.C.</strong></p>
<p>Good morning.</p>
<p>Thank you, John, for your kind introduction. And thank you to the Center for Strategic and International Studies for your hospitality.</p>
<p>It is great to be here to talk about emerging trade opportunities with Indonesia, especially because trade with Asia has been a focus of mine long before I arrived at the Commerce Department.</p>
<p>Before moving to<em> this</em> Washington, I was governor for eight years of Washington state, the most trade-dependent state in America. And when I left office, I was a partner at a law firm and focused on international business, primarily with Asian countries.</p>
<p>When President Obama asked me to be his Secretary of Commerce, I was honored and eager to continue my trade promotion efforts on behalf of the United States.</p>
<p>One thing I can tell you about this president is that he has a deep appreciation for the power of trade to revitalize America's economy and improve the quality of life and strengthen our diplomatic alliances around the world.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s why he recently announced a National Export Initiative, which calls for doubling our exports in five years.</p>
<p>And it&rsquo;s a big part of the reason why early next week he is going to Indonesia and then to Australia.</p>
<p>These are two vibrant democracies and key allies in a very important part of the world. </p>
<p>As the president said in Tokyo last year, there has been a sense that, for some years, the United States has been absent from the Asia-Pacific region.</p>
<p>That has not been and will not be the case with this administration. It was no coincidence that Secretary of State Clinton made her first official trip abroad to Indonesia. We understand that Asia must be a force for global stability and prosperity in the 21st century.</p>
<p>In Cairo last summer, the president called for a new beginning with Muslims around the world. And Indonesia, the world&rsquo;s most populous Muslim-majority country, is a key part of this strategy. It is country that holds personal significance for this president and important strategic and economic interests for the United States.</p>
<p>Indonesia also is a key partner in our counterterrorism efforts. And it is a trading partner that holds significant potential. </p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Indonesia&rsquo;s GDP grew 4.5 percent last year, while much of the world was contracting;</li>
<li> Through 2008, American foreign direct investment in Indonesia totaled $17.9 billion;</li>
<li> Since 2005, two-way merchandise trade with Indonesia has grown more than 43 percent, and last year was worth more than $18 billion;</li>
<li> And despite being off 10 percent from the 2008 levels, last year, Americans exported more than $5 billion in goods to Indonesia.growing trade </li>
</ul>
<p>Which is why, when the president is there next week, he&rsquo;ll formally establish the U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership&mdash;a blueprint for cooperating on a host of issues, from trade and investment to education and the environment.</p>
<p>Growing trade with Indonesia is a piece of the president&rsquo;s broader plan to create jobs here at home by growing market access overseas.</p>
<p>This is the strategy he outlined in his National Export Initiative.</p>
<p>And it&rsquo;s a plan to address a characteristic of the 21st century economy: Job creation in America is increasingly dependent on our foreign trade.</p>
<p>There have, of course, been previous endeavors by the U.S. government to elevate the importance of exports. </p>
<p>But what sets the president&rsquo;s export initiative apart is that this is the first time the United States will have a government-wide export-promotion strategy with focused attention from the president and his Cabinet.</p>
<p>It has never been more important for American compaies to increase their sales to the 95 percent of the world&rsquo;s consumers who live outside the United States.</p>
<p>And here&rsquo;s how we plan on doing this.</p>
<p>Number one is through a more robust effort by this administration to expand its trade advocacy in all its forms. That means:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Educating U.S. companies about opportunities overseas;</li>
<li> Directly connecting them with new customers; and </li>
<li> Advocating more forcefully for their interests in government contracting processes.</li>
</ul>
<p>As part of the National Export Initiative, the 2011 budget includes a request to funnel $132 million to the Department of Commerce&rsquo;s International Trade Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to educate U.S. farmers and businesses about opportunities overseas and directly connect them with new customers.</p>
<p>As the president recently said, it&rsquo;s time for the United States &ldquo;to go to bat for our businesses and our workers,&rdquo; especially when other countries are so vigorously advocating for their companies' interests abroad.</p>
<p>The second key element of the NEI is improving access to credit, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses that want to export.</p>
<p>In particular, the president has called upon the Export-Import Bank&mdash;which enables critical financing when private banks are unwilling or unable&mdash;to increase its financing available for small- and medium-size businesses by $2 billion over the next year.</p>
<p>The Small Business Administration will also play a strong role in increasing financing available to small- and medium-size businesses.</p>
<p>Finally, the third key element of the NEI is making sure American companies have free and fair access to foreign markets.</p>
<p>The American people need to feel confident that when we sign an agreement that gives foreign countries the privilege of free and fair access to our domestic market, we are treated the same in their countries.</p>
<p>These steps will make it far easier for American companies to ramp up their investment in Indonesia.</p>
<p>But these initiatives on their own won&rsquo;t be enough to realize the full potential of our partnership.</p>
<p>Although trade with Indonesia has grown in recent years, Indonesia is still only our 28th-largest trading partner.</p>
<p>In fact, Indonesia does less trade with the United States than some of its smaller, less populous ASEAN neighbors, like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. </p>
<p>In order to increase trade, it&rsquo;s incumbent upon Indonesia to make market-oriented reforms that will make it a more attractive market. Not just for U.S. companies but companies all around the world.</p>
<p>These same reforms will help improve the quality of life for Indonesians, who will have access to goods and services that they don&rsquo;t have access to today.</p>
<p>Economic nationalism, regulatory uncertainty and unresolved investment disputes give pause to American companies seeking to do business in Indonesia.</p>
<p>And if Indonesia is looking for a partner to address these issues, the United States is eager to lend its assistance.</p>
<p>Because ensuring that increased trade actually happens requires a long-term partnership.</p>
<p>And that&rsquo;s something this administration is intent on seeing through. We are going to play a more active role in leading trade missions abroad and serving as an on-the-ground advocate for our companies.</p>
<p>It's a role that I am eager to play when, in May, I will follow up on the president&rsquo;s trip by leading a trade mission of American renewable energy companies to Indonesia.</p>
<p>This trip can be a model example of the mutual benefits of international trade.</p>
<p>On the one hand, Indonesia has a growing need for cleaner and affordable sources of energy.</p>
<p>Indonesia has more than 230 million people, and by 2050, its population is expected to reach about 280 million. What&rsquo;s more, Indonesia is the world&rsquo;s third-largest emitter of carbon.</p>
<p>As its population swells, Indonesia&rsquo;s energy needs are going to skyrocket.</p>
<p>And American companies can help Indonesia meet this energy challenge.</p>
<p>The Indonesian government has already developed an aggressive blueprint for action on renewable energy. In four years&rsquo; time, the government expects a 56 percent increase in overall energy investment. And in fifteen years, 15 percent of Indonesia&rsquo;s energy is mandated by law to come from renewable energy. </p>
<p>The implication of this is clear. Indonesia is going to be a vast, steady market for green technologies.</p>
<p>Ensuring that American companies play a lead role in this energy transformation is a priority for the Obama administration.</p>
<p>There are regional neighbors like China and India that are racing with us to meet Indonesia&rsquo;s and the world&rsquo;s demand for renewable energy, a demand expected to increase by 50 percent by 2030.</p>
<p>It will be hard enough to meet that using just any form of energy we can find.</p>
<p>But we're not looking for any old type of energy. This new energy has to be clean to avoid catastrophic climate change. And it has to be cheap to keep our economies growing.</p>
<p>Having traveled across America over the last year, and visited companies at the vanguard of this clean energy challenge, I have no doubt we have the technology and the expertise.</p>
<p>Now, the U.S. government just needs to help connect those companies with customers around the world</p>
<p>When I go to Indonesia, I am taking with me between 10 and 15 firms that represent a cross-section of U.S. clean energy industries. </p>
<p>Indonesia is home to 40 percent of the world&rsquo;s known geothermal resources. But there is great potential for biomass and photovoltaic renewable energies as well.</p>
<p>In fact, to reach its 15 percent renewable energy threshold in 2025, Indonesia has called for five percent of that energy to come from geothermal sources, five percent from biomass and five percent from other sources.</p>
<p>Indonesia is taking bold steps, ones that can&mdash;and really must&mdash;be met with equally bold initiatives from U.S. companies. </p>
<p>America already has a strong foundation of cooperation to build on, as evidenced by our close trading relationship with ASEAN countries.</p>
<p>Increasingly, this region is becoming one of the most vital U.S. trading partners. </p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Last year, trade between the United States and ASEAN countries reached $145 billion.</li>
<li> If the ASEAN region were a single country, it would be our sixth-largest trading partner. </li>
<li> And the Office of the United States Trade Representative is, as we speak, negotiating to open markets with ASEAN nations through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)&mdash;an agreement that could set a new standard for trade agreements with strong labor, environmental and market-access standards.</li>
</ul>
<p>Growing this relationship has been a particular focus of the Obama administration. </p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> In November, I joined President Obama and several Cabinet members in Singapore to take part in the first-ever US-ASEAN Summit.</li>
<li> Since coming to Washington almost exactly a year ago, I have met with ambassadors from every ASEAN nation as well as ministers from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.</li>
<li> And later this spring, Ambassador Kirk will accompany several ASEAN economic ministers on a U.S. tour to promote increased economic engagement.</li>
</ul>
<p>These are significant steps that the Obama administration is pursuing. </p>
<p>If they lack the widespread attention that has characterized United States ventures into different parts of the world&mdash;it&rsquo;s because building strong, lasting ties takes time.</p>
<p>In Cairo, last June, the president talked about re-engaging the Muslim and developing world. He called for trust to be built upon shared values and commonalities.</p>
<p>The real work of relationship building happens in face-to-face interactions. And it often happens between businessmen and businesswomen who can only do business if they trust one another. And so, by necessity, they learn about each other&rsquo;s cultures.</p>
<p>There are certain forces in the world that would seek to drive a wedge between the United States and Indonesia, but the bonds of commerce can be stronger.</p>
<p>For everyone here who seeks to increase U.S.-Indonesia ties, I can assure you, you will have the support of this administration.</p>
<p>Thank you again for having me.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechAustraliaBenefitsBudgetBusiness ChinaClimateClimate ChangeCompanies EconomyEnvironmentExportsForeign Direct InvestmentGlobalGoods and servicesGovernment IndiaIndonesiaInitiativeInternationalJobsMalaysiaMissionNationalObamaOpportunitiesPopulationPresident ObamaRegionSingaporeStateTechnologyThailandTradeTrade AgreementsTrade MissionsUnited StatesVietnamWashingtonInternational Trade AdministrationOffice of the SecretaryWed, 17 Mar 2010 15:42:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11567 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks at National League of Cities Congressional City Conferencehttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/16/remarks-national-league-cities-congressional-city-conference
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Tuesday, March 16, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at National League of Cities Congressional City Conference<br />
Washington, D.C.</strong></p>
<p><a href="/sites/default/files/images/migrated/NLC-640.gif" target="_top" rel="lightbox">Related image</a></p>
<p>Hello everyone. It's great to be here this week, along with so many of my colleagues from the administration. </p>
<p>It is so important for state and local leaders like you to be partners in helping us understand what works and what doesn't&mdash;to be America&rsquo;s &ldquo;laboratories of democracy.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And we need you to be responsible stewards for the billions of federal taxpayer dollars that are allocated to state and local governments every year.</p>
<p>That's an especially timely thing to remember now, because the 2010 Census is underway&mdash;and that will determine how more than $400 billion in federal funds are allocated annually for everything from transportation projects and school improvements to senior services and public safety.</p>
<p>The census is also going to determine how many representatives every state has in Congress.</p>
<p>I cannot emphasize enough how important this census is, especially for urban communities, which have frequently been undercounted in the past. </p>
<p>This week, households across America will be receiving their 10 question Census forms.</p>
<p>Don Borut has done a wonderful job getting the League of Cities engaged in our census Bureau's Take 10 challenge&mdash;and I hope we can continue to keep you all engaged in the months ahead.</p>
<p>You can help your constituents understand how important the Census is&mdash;and how safe it is to participate.</p>
<p>The census is completely confidential. Information provided to the Census Bureau is protected by law from being shared with other federal agencies. Even the provisions of the Patriot Actdo not override census privacy protections. </p>
<p>Every constituent you convince to mail back their census forms is one less person we need to contact with door to door follow-ups&mdash;which is very expensive.</p>
<p>For every one percent increase in the number of people who mail back their census forms, taxpayers save about $85 million.</p>
<p>I ask for your help with the census, because I know that few leaders have a better feel for what's really happening in America than the people in this room. </p>
<p>I&rsquo;m very familiar with the challenges your constituents are dealing with in this difficult economy, having served in the Washington state house for 11 years.</p>
<p>And let there be no doubt: putting people back to work is the number one priority of the entire Obama administration.</p>
<p>I know that people are frustrated that the economy is not turning around quicker.</p>
<p>But it&rsquo;s important to be mindful of where we have come from. </p>
<p>Early last year, we were on the precipice of a second depression, with banks failing and the economy losing 700,000 jobs a month.</p>
<p>But thanks to the difficult and sometimes unpopular steps the administration took to stabilize financial and housing markets and stimulate our economy, we have returned from the brink.</p>
<p>One of those steps was the passage of the Recovery Act, which distributed badly needed relief in almost equal thirds of: </p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> tax relief;</li>
<li> aid to states and small businesses; and infrastructure projects.</li>
</ul>
<p>This Act has already:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Provided over $100 billion in tax relief for American businesses and families</li>
<li> Prevented more than $50 billion in Medicaid cuts across the country; and</li>
<li> Funded over 12,500 transportation construction projects nationwide, ranging from highway construction to airport improvement projects; and</li>
<li> Partly as a result, an economy that was shrinking by six percent a year ago is growing by nearly six percent today.</li>
</ul>
<p>Still, we have a long way to go.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve got to keep working to create a sustainable economy that provides more opportunity for everyone.</p>
<p>Today, I want to talk to about how the Commerce Department is helping achieve that. </p>
<p>And I want to close with one big idea for how all of you can help your constituents and your country stay safe and prosperous for decades to come.</p>
<p>Let me begin by describing in very simple terms what I see as the core mission of the Commerce Department :</p>
<p>Making American businesses more innovative at home and more competitive abroad so they can create good jobs in communities throughout America.</p>
<p>Let's start with innovation, which the Department is seeking to kickstart in a variety of ways:</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re leading the administration's $7.2 billion effort to expand high-speed Internet access throughout the country.</p>
<p>Thirty-six percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home.</p>
<p>It is simply unacceptable for this many Americans to be without the educational, business and employment opportunities that high-speed, reliable Internet service provides.</p>
<p>This program is going to help fix that glaring inequality.</p>
<p>And it's going to help catalyze billions of dollars more in broadband investment from the private sector and local communities.</p>
<p>Just as the government might fund construction of a highway across a state, and then have private or local interests build the streets that branch off of it, most of our grants are funding basic broadband infrastructure that allows local providers to bring high-speed Internet directly to homes or businesses.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve already provided over $ 1 billion to fund over 20,000 miles of networked, high-speed Internet lines in underserved communities throughout America.</p>
<p>Aside from providing badly needed Internet access, these investments are going to create thousands of good construction jobs in the near term digging trenches, laying fiber-optic cables and stringing up utility poles.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re now moving into the second round of funding and I would encourage all of you to make sure businesses and other groups in your communities are doing everything they can to take advantage of this.</p>
<p>A second step Commerce is taking to drive innovation in local communities is being run through our Economic Development Administration or EDA, which helps provide funding for communities to build critical economic infrastructure.</p>
<p>The president's 2011 budget includes $75 million for EDA to issue planning grants that help local communities identify their unique strengths and develop regional economic clusters.</p>
<p>The idea is to foster the creation of more places like Silicon Valley or the Route 128 corridor in Boston &ndash; where high growth industries are nourished by entrepreneurs, academics, venture capitalists, municipal and even state leaders all working and creating together in the same place.</p>
<p>These innovation hotbeds are not confined to any one part of the country. They&rsquo;re thriving in places like Rochester, New York and Dubuque, Iowa and the Commerce Department is helping to create more.</p>
<p>Finally, as we take these important steps to spur American innovation at home, Commerce is also increasing our efforts to help our companies sell more of their goods and services to the 95 percent of the world&rsquo;s consumers who live <u>outside</u> the United States</p>
<p>The Commerce Department is playing a lead role in implementing President Obama&rsquo;s recently announced National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports over the next five years and support two million jobs here at home.</p>
<p>This initiative is going to provide more export financing, more trade promotion assistance and more focus on knocking down the trade barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and open access to foreign markets.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re putting small- and medium-size businesses at the center of our outreach; and I would urge any local nonprofit or government economic development organizations in your areas to get businesses involved in this effort.</p>
<p>What I just discussed are but a few of the many different things the Commerce Department is doing to spur economic growth and job creation.</p>
<p>But before I leave today, I would like to suggest one extremely important step all of you can take to unleash innovation and job creation in your communities for years and decades to come.</p>
<p>Of the many challenges facing America, one that I know is particularly resonant for all of you is the declining state of American infrastructure.</p>
<p>In particular&mdash;our electric grid&mdash;which was once named the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century&mdash;is fraying at the seams.</p>
<p>Our electric grid is so inefficient that by the time electricity makes it to your plug, a full two thirds has already been lost through generation, distribution and transmission.</p>
<p>The system is so blind that if power goes out in your house, your utility won't even know about it unless you call them.</p>
<p>Every year, Americans lose $150 billion due to power outages and blackouts. That's $500 for every man woman and child.</p>
<p>In congressional testimony last year, the venture capitalist John Doerr remarked that he knows far more about his daughter's text messaging from his phone bill than he does about his family's electricity usage. </p>
<p>Imagine walking through your grocery store and buying food for your family with no idea what any of it cost, and then getting sent the bill for all of it 30 days later.</p>
<p>That would be a crazy way to buy groceries.</p>
<p>But that's what it&rsquo;s like to buy electricity in America. </p>
<p>This problem can be fixed with your help. </p>
<p>Here's how.</p>
<p>One of the biggest reasons why the technology for our electric grid is still stuck in the 1930s is because many of the state rules that regulate electricity pricing are from the same era.</p>
<p>And in many states, these rules and regulations reward utilities for one thing above all else:</p>
<p>Cranking out cheap and dependable power for their customers.</p>
<p>This mandate made sense eighty years ago, when electrification was still novel.</p>
<p>But today, these rules are actively stifling the innovation we need to <em>reduce</em> consumption.</p>
<p>Let me just give you one example.</p>
<p>Let&rsquo;s say a utility needs to deliver electricity to a thousand new homes, or a new office complex.</p>
<p>Under the prevailing rate structure in most states, the utility will be allowed to pass the costs on to consumers for building the new capacity it needs to serve the new customers.</p>
<p>But if the utility can meet that same added demand by reducing consumption elsewhere in the system&mdash;for instance by insulating 10,000 older homes or deploying a smart grid&mdash;they will, in most cases, have to eat some or all of the energy-saving costs.</p>
<p>If you&rsquo;re a utility with a choice between the certain profitability of adding new capacity; or investing in better efficiency measures that not only won't be profitable, but might cost you money as your customers use less power, it&rsquo;s really no choice at all.</p>
<p>That new capacity is getting built.</p>
<p>I know that those of you here today have varying degrees of influence over your utility commissions, but I would encourage you to do whatever you can to change the rules of the game so utilities can be incentivized just as much, if not more, for efficiency measures as they are for building new energy capacity.</p>
<p>This administration has already done quite a bit to the lay the foundation to revitalize our electric grid. </p>
<p>Last year's Recovery Act provided $11 billion to spur the development of a national smart grid. And one of the Commerce Department&rsquo;s technical agencies is developing standards to ensure interoperability for emerging smart grid technologies.</p>
<p>But if you can help change some of the incentives at the state and local level, it will help pull this wave of innovation throughout utilities across the country.</p>
<p>Developing a smart grid is not a risky, experimental technology that we are hoping might work.</p>
<p>We know it works.</p>
<p>The smart grids' hardware and software is actually very similar to what has been used for decades to link the computers in our offices and the machines in our factories. </p>
<p>The technology will enable customers to see and manage their energy use in real time. </p>
<p>With the right regulatory reforms, it would also allow consumers to take advantage of different electricity rates at different times of day&mdash;choosing, for example to run their washing machine during off-peak hours when rates would be cheapest.</p>
<p>For utilities, it will offer them the chance to smooth out peaks in demand and meet new demand with better efficiency rather than costly new power plants.</p>
<p>And as distributed power sources like plug-in electric cars, rooftop solar panels and wind farms become a bigger part of America&rsquo;s energy mix, a smart grid will enable us to deal with energy coming from a lot of sources in which some customers are consuming energy and others are feeding it back into the grid.</p>
<p>We've already seen very impressive examples of a smart grid in pilot projects at the local level. </p>
<p>For example, in North Carolina, Duke Energy linked up a small community of homes to a smart grid, and at the end of their test period, consumers were using 20 percent less energy and paying 20 percent less on their electric bill, without even noticing it.</p>
<p>These energy savings didn't come from consumers sacrificing their lifestyle. People didn't have to lower their thermostats to 50 degrees when it was cold or walk around their house with a candle. This 20 percent savings was all done with just smarter and more efficient energy use.</p>
<p>But the only way we are going to replicate this success nationwide is for local leaders like all of you to push to get the right incentives in place.</p>
<p>Just as the Internet spawned new industries, as well as new cutting edge jobs, making the Smart Grid a reality will create new job opportunities for thousands of Americans as they go about the business of retrofitting and upgrading our grid.</p>
<p>You can help make it happen.</p>
<p>Helping change the way your state energy commissions incentivize utilities is one of the most straightforward and impactful things you can do to set this country and your communities on a path to a cleaner and more prosperous future.</p>
<p>I hope its action that you will strongly consider.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechBroadbandBudgetBusiness CityCompanies CongressConstructionDevelopmentEconomyExportsGoods and servicesGovernment GrantsGrowthInitiativeInnovationInternetInteroperabilityIowaJobsLocalMissionNationalNorth CarolinaObamaOpportunitiesPresident ObamaPrivacyRecoveryRegulationsSafetyStateTechnologyTestimonyTestimonyTradeUnited StatesWashingtonBureau of the CensusEconomic Development AdministrationOffice of the SecretaryTue, 16 Mar 2010 13:46:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11568 at http://www.commerce.govRemarks at American Hotel and Lodging Association Summithttp://www.commerce.gov/news/secretary-speeches/2010/03/15/remarks-american-hotel-and-lodging-association-summit
<div class="press-release-header">
<p><strong>AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY</strong></p>
<p>Monday, March 15, 2010</p>
<p><strong>CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS</strong></p>
<p>202-482-4883</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke<br />
Remarks at American Hotel and Lodging Association<br />
Washington, D.C.</strong></p>
<p>Thank you, David, for the kind words and for your service on our U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.</p>
<p>I&rsquo;m delighted to be here. </p>
<p>Travel and tourism was a key contributor to the economy of Washington State when I was governor. And during my tenure, we launched a very successful web-based tourism promotion program that brought visitors, sales, and jobs to the state.</p>
<p>So I came to my current office well aware of the importance of travel and tourism to the economy and employment.</p>
<p>At a time when a lot of people are justifiably concerned about America's trade deficit, travel and tourism has consistently been a surplus for the United States. Last year, international travelers spent $22 billion more here than U.S. citizens did abroad.</p>
<p>We have to build on that competitive advantage, especially during this time of immense economic difficulty.</p>
<p>Putting people back to work is the number one priority of the Obama administration.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s what this past year has been all about. It&rsquo;s what this coming year will be all about. And I'm counting on your industry to play a key role in that effort.</p>
<p>I know that people are frustrated that the economy is not turning around more quickly.</p>
<p>But it&rsquo;s important to be mindful of where we have come from. </p>
<p>Early last year:</p>
<ul type="disc">
<li> The economy was losing on average, 700,000 jobs a month;</li>
<li> And we were watching a cascade of bank failures unlike anything we&rsquo;d seen since the 1930s.</li>
</ul>
<p>We were on the precipice of a second Great Depression.</p>
<p>But thanks to the difficult and sometimes unpopular steps the administration took to stabilize financial and housing markets and stimulate our economy, we have returned from the brink.</p>
<p>An economy that was shrinking by six percent a year ago is growing by nearly six percent today.</p>
<p>Still, we have a long way to go.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve got to keep working to create a sustainable economy that provides more opportunity for everyone.</p>
<p>Like a lot of areas of our economy, the travel and tourism industry is facing some stiff headwinds.</p>
<p>2008 saw a record $1.3 trillion in direct and indirect industry sales for the United States, which supported 8.6 million jobs.</p>
<p>But that robust growth evaporated in 2009.</p>
<p>Employment dropped by 400,000 (or nearly five percent) into the third quarter of 2009.</p>
<p>Later this week, we will be issuing the international travel and tourism visitation and receipts for 2009.</p>
<p>The story is as we expected &ndash; down 5 percent for international visitation and down 15 percent for receipts. Other countries around the world are experiencing similar declines.</p>
<p>This has, of course, hit the lodging industry particularly hard&mdash;as eight out of 10 overseas travelers in 2008 stayed in a hotel or motel during their trip to the U.S.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, accommodations and transportation were the sectors posting the largest declines among traveler spending for the third quarter.</p>
<p>The good news is that your overseas customers are the best customers for our economy &ndash; they spend more and stay longer.</p>
<p>And across the travel and tourism industry, we are seeing glimmers of hope.</p>
<p>In the fourth quarter last year, for instance, there were monthly increases for 15 of the top 20 international visitor markets.</p>
<p>This positions us well in the U.S. for potentially meeting our forecasted 3 percent recovery for the travel and tourism industry in 2010.</p>
<p>At the Commerce Department, we are working hard to accelerate this recovery.</p>
<p>On March 4, I was privileged to be with the President when he signed the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, which, as you know, had broad support from the industry and Congress.</p>
<p>The Act creates a public-private partnership called the Corporation for Travel Promotion. This new alliance between the U.S. government and the nation&rsquo;s travel and tourism industry will help encourage more international visitors to come to the United States.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department will have the lead to get it all started. The President&rsquo;s last comment to me as he was shaking my hand and about to leave the Oval Office, was &ldquo;Gary Locke&hellip;make sure you do it right!&rdquo;</p>
<p>That is exactly what we intend to do.</p>
<p>We are already working on opening the field for applicants for the Corporation&rsquo;s Board, so the notice should be going out within the next few weeks. Watch for this, as I know that a member of your sector is slated to be on the Board.</p>
<p>The law requires the 11-member Board to be established within six months of the signing. We are intent on meeting that well ahead of the deadline, in a transparent and balanced manner.</p>
<p>While we are working on the Board selection, we are already engaged with the Department of Homeland Security to get the fee collection system, which will help support the Corporation, in place as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>Once the Board is established, the Corporation can be formed, and the staff can be hired for setting up the real work of the Corporation.</p>
<p>As you know, we have a great product to sell, and the new Corporation for Travel Promotion will be able to draw on expertise from the existing structures that the Commerce Department already has in place.</p>
<p>We already work closely with industry through the management of a Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.</p>
<p>This group, which I chair, includes 29 industry members selected to represent their sectors. They provide input and guidance on a range of issues, from facilitating travel to infrastructure development to sustainability concerns, among others.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, David serves on this board. We look forward to his continued insights and partnership in this endeavor.</p>
<p>We are also pleased to have the heads of the Hyatt and Carlson companies serving on this Board.</p>
<p>Commerce also oversees an interagency Tourism Policy Council, which engages more than 17 agencies and government departments to coordinate policies impacting the industry.</p>
<p>We continue to work closely with the State Department on facilitating business visas for improved participation in trade shows, exhibitions, and meetings.</p>
<p>Of course, a chief focus of policymakers throughout the U.S. government is ensuring open and fair market access for our exporters.</p>
<p>Most of you are aware of the bilateral agreement between the U.S. and China that took effect in December 2007, enabling group leisure travel to the United States.</p>
<p>The initial agreement was limited to nine highly-urban provinces. The agreement has now been expanded to a total of 21 provinces.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We&rsquo;re very excited about capitalizing on this powerhouse of an emerging market. </p>
<p>Also, importantly, this has enabled U.S. businesses and destinations to market themselves now in China, a barrier prior to this agreement.</p>
<p>We see similar opportunities in India and Brazil. </p>
<p>But the Commerce Department's help isn't limited to just shaping policies and regulations to help your industry.</p>
<p>We have a great team of industry experts working to create a competitive business environment for you.</p>
<p>We have a sales force of Commercial Service officers positioned in almost 80 countries across the globe and 107 offices throughout our country.</p>
<p>And we also partner with 35 private-sector, Visit USA Associations throughout the world to enhance communications and export promotion efforts.</p>
<p>The Corporation for Travel Promotion will add greater leverage to these efforts.</p>
<p>Now, all of our efforts are going to dovetail with President Obama's broader plans to spur American exports.</p>
<p>Last week, the president provided further details about his National Export Initiative, which seeks to double our exports in the next five years and support two million jobs.</p>
<p>There is no question that travel and tourism&mdash;a key service industry export&mdash;will play a key role in helping us reach this goal.</p>
<p>The president specifically cited the Travel Promotion Act as an example of a model law for establishing active promotion and marketing efforts.</p>
<p>I have no question that the people in this room will be working every day to maintain America's competitive advantage in travel and tourism.</p>
<p>These days, we hear a lot about America's problems, but there is one reassuring fact that is as true as ever:</p>
<p>America is still a fascinating, wonderful and welcoming place to visit.</p>
<p>You are all part of the reason it remains so.</p>
<p>So I thank you and the entire travel and tourism industry, which contributes so much to this country&rsquo;s continued prosperity and well-being.</p>Secretary SpeechesSpeechBrazilBusiness ChinaCitizensCompanies CongressDevelopmentEconomyEnvironmentExportsGovernment GrowthIndiaInitiativeInternationalJobsNationalObamaOpportunitiesPresident ObamaRecoveryRegulationsStateSustainabilityTourismTradeTravelUnited StatesWashingtonOffice of the SecretaryMon, 15 Mar 2010 23:11:00 +0000ksullivan@doc.gov11569 at http://www.commerce.gov